A Grey Confrontation
by Imma Comin
Summary: "There is no such thing as falling in love when there is no ground to fall on". "I have already fallen, and I have already hit the ground". "Well, I haven't, and I'm so, so worried that I will in this war". "How?". "I...I could lose you" DRAMIONE
1. Chapter 1  A Long Night

-Chapter One-

A Long Night

Lightning cracked against Malfoy Manor as stomach curdling screams ripped through the dampened air of the hallways, where wizards from enchanted portraits tried to cover their ears to escape the drum-splitting shrieks. In the ballroom, furniture was pushed aside carelessly as dark figures shadowed over another being as it lay on the floor, this seemed to be the source of the noise, although it did not bother the other occupants in the room, in fact, the faint ripples of sniggers told otherwise: It amused them.

Lucius Malfoy raised the whip once more, before another echoed crack was heard, and another scream filled the atmosphere. As he raised the whip again, a soggy, grey demon-like hand slithered to his shoulder, wordlessly urging him to stop.

"That'll do, Lucius, I believe 20 will be enough for the warm-up of your son's punishment" Hissed the Dark lord with such an unimaginable amount of venom, it could've killed a small rodent. Lucius sighed in disgust as he gathered the whip in his hands-it would mean he would get blood on them. The victim was sprawled out across the cold wooden floor, gasping helplessly for air as a fish would out of water. The identity of the victim was surprising to most, but nonetheless, it was suffering. Draco Malfoy was the victim on the floor, breathing in and out heavily as he struggled to try and stand up, which further failed when Voldemort crushed him back down again with his bare foot.

"You don't deserve to stand after you failed your mission" Whispered Voldemort. "You're lucky I can actually be bothered to punish you, if I wasn't, you would be dead at this VERY MOMENT!" Voldemort's voice was gradually getting louder and louder, and now all of the death eaters in the room could hear. Draco Malfoy was on his stomach, and lifted his head slightly so he was making eye contact with him, he was no longer afraid to look in the eye of a snake like him, he tried to speak as a mixture of blood and saliva dribbled down his torn face.

"Then...Kill... Me" Gasps filled the room as he coughed out those words, probably because he actually had the nerve to talk back to the Dark Lord while making eye contact.

"How dear you speak to me, you traitor!" yelled Voldemort "Lucius! How could you have raised a boy so weak and disobedient?"

Draco looked up at his own father, who, in return portrayed a typical family smirk as he looked back down at him in hatred. He spat beside Draco and merely replied, "He is no son of mine, my lord" The death eaters around them cheered and laughed in amusement, only to hush when Voldmort raised his icy palm.

"Very well. _Crucio_" Screams twice as terrifying as the last echoed around the room as Draco's body twitched and twisted from the influence of the cruciatus curse. No other magic was as horrible as this. No thoughts could transfer through his brain at this very moment, it was impossible to think through this mayhem, this monstrosity that was burning his mind into insanity. How could someone hate a another so much, that blood came out of the victim's ears? A few moments later, the curse died down and Draco lay there, more lifeless than before, not even his trademark white- blonde hair could be noticed under the layer of blood, he was simply unrecognisable.

"Lucius" said Voldemort calmly, "Do something that would make Draco seem more... Alive" small sniggers were heard from the room as Lucius paced towards his former son, gently taking out a dagger from his back pocket, and holding it carefully, as if it were a sacred family heirloom. He held it in front of him, in the air, before lashing out into Draco's right thigh. Draco lifted his head a tore open his eyes in agony as Lucius took out the dagger; he could no longer scream as he had done it so much in the last 20 minutes, so it had been replaced with louder breathes that increased the more amount of pain he was in. Lucius gave him 4 more blows, once again on his right thigh, below his left knee, in his stomach, and a final one into his right shoulder. Draco no longer had the energy to function, and he could tell they were getting bored when he was dragged into a cell in the dungeon. He was in there, finally alone for what seemed like ages. It's funny. When he was little he used to play with Blaise and Pansy down here during the summer when it rained. He never imagined that he would be held down here against his will with several stab wounds and lying in a pool of his own blood. Just his luck. Just as he was about to close his eyes forever, a small being popped in front of him.

"Dob...by?" Whimpered Draco as he tried to talk superiorly in front of his old house elf, but it ended up breaking from lack of energy. Was this his escape? His former house elf is his saviour? How low was he willing to go in order to be saved from death?

Very low, apparently.

"Old Master?" Whispered Dobby. "Dobby has never seen anyone need more help, Dobby must get you somewhere safe! Dobby must take you to the order!" Before Draco could refuse he noticed from the different ground that he was somewhere else, and before he tried to recognise the people that had suddenly appeared in his weakening sight, the surroundings disappeared as he blacked out.

Hermione woke up suddenly, as she heard an ear splitting scream come from down stairs. She sighed as she thought of Mrs Black, before rolling over and getting back to sleep, then suddenly, someone started vigorously poking her. It was Harry.

"Harry!" Moaned Hermione "Don't do that! Don't you see I'm trying to-"

"Mione, get up! It wasn't Mrs Black that was screaming! It was Mrs Weasley!" Hermione instantly got out of bed and rushed out of the bedroom at the speed of light, before being stopped by Remus Lupin, who looked like he had been disturbed from his perfect slumber.

"No one is to go down stairs at this very moment, no one is to even question _anything _at this very moment, or there will be consequences." A faint moan was heard in the kitchen. "Don't worry, no one we know has been hurt" After that he went downstairs to sort out the commotion. It seemed only the 'children' weren't allowed to go downstairs. Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Fred and George sat on the ledge of the stairs, itching to know what was going on.

Ron sighed with impatience "So, what do you think has happened?"

"How the hell do you think we're supposed to know?"

"Alright 'Mione, I was only asking."

"Asking questions seems to be the only thing that fuels your peanut-sized brain"

"Ooh, buuurrnn"

"Shut up, George"

"As if, turd cake"

"Just... SHUT UP!"

"Oh, GREAT come-ba-"

"Enough! Look, we should be worrying about other things, not bickering. From what Remus said... Someone could be hurt." Hermione's worried face seemed to have an effect on the others, as faces of annoyance turned into concern, and then also, worry. "Look, Lupin said that no one _we know _has been hurt. That means..."

"Someone's been hurt"

"Yes, Harry, and badly too. Didn't you hear Mrs Weasley's scream? It must've been horrific" The young group sat in silence, pondering within themselves just what might've happened, and who to. After a couple of minutes, Fred grew impatient.

"Right, I've had enough" he said. "I'm going downstairs" He began heading down, but a hand grabbed the sleeves of his pyjamas.

"Uh, maybe you should use my invisibility cloak, you know, just in case" Harry said as he handed Fred a large ball of multi coloured fabric.

"Thanks mate, with pleasure" Fred grabbed the cloak before covering himself and creating creaks down the crooked stairs as he made his way down them. The others sat there in silence, before Ginny broke it.

"I wonder who's hurt, when it's none of us?" She rubbed her chin in thought.

"It must be serious, I mean, everyone's hear"

"Not everyone's here, Harry"

"Maybe it's a muggle, if it is, he or she will be obliviated, right?" Ron rubbed his eyes in tiredness as he spoke.

"Let's hope you're right... Fred!" Hermione was shoved out of the way by an invisible shape as she heard a mumbled 'sorry'. The figure, which was Fred, came into view and stumbled into the bathroom, where he emptied all the contents of his stomach into the shiny sink, which was now coated with chewed up remains of roast chicken. Fred wiped his mouth dizzily before leaving the room while holding his stomach. The others looked at him in concern.

"What did you see?" Asked Harry. All of the youngsters listened, eagerly awaiting news.

"Blood" Fred shivered nervously, which was very rear, raising the eyebrows of the Weasley's and Harry and Hermione. "Lots of it. I've never seen so much blood in my whole entire life come from one guy. The unlucky sod had so much blood and cuts over him I couldn't tell if he was wearing clothes or not. All I know is he's a he".

Gasps were heard.

"Fred, mate, this is the truth, isn't it?"Asked Ron, with an expression the same as the others. Pity.

"Do you think I would've spewed my guts out if I was lying?" replied Fred. George tapped him on the shoulder.

"I think this is a good time for our extendable ears invention, my friend"

All six of them crammed together on the top of the staircase listening for anything useful that would identify the person in question. Fortunately Crookshanks wouldn't be at the receiving end of it this time; the 'mutated carrot' was fast asleep on Ron's bed, much to his dislike. As George adjusted the angle the ears were facing a discussion was heard:

"_Remus, we can't use the pain relief potion yet, he's not strong enough-"_

"_But Molly he's gasping in pain! He can't even speak he's so weak."_

"_Let's try to identify this poor lad first, and clean him up, who brought him here in the first place?"_

"_Dobby did, before I asked anything though, he disappeared-"_

"_Well that's not good enough! We-"_

"_Stop being so impatient, Mad-eye, you could make him stressed"_

"_Shh! The Boy is trying to make a sound, let him speak! Can you hear dear?"_

"_What's your name, sweet heart?"_

"_..."_

"_Good grief! He must've come straight from Malfoy Manor..."_

"What the-"

"Shut up Ron, we have to find out who this guy is"

"Ow! You didn't have to hit me that hard, Ginny!"

"_Poor lad, must've been his father and Voldemort put together at the amount of cuts and bruises he has"_

"_It can't be him! His father would never allow-"_

"_Look at the colour of his hair, Nymphadora, doesn't that explain enough!"_

"_Well, how can you tell what colour hair it is under all that blood-oh"_

"_We should take him somewhere else, not here"_

"_Where then, eh? Where do you suggest he goes so he doesn't manage to go to Azkaban, eh?"_

"_We could try and make him switch sides..."_

"Hermione, what's wrong?" Asked Ginny as Hermione began pacing around the group, wide eyes replaced the ones that were sleep deprived. "Have you found out who the guy is yet?" Hermione nodded, but not gleefully from accomplishing yet another task, but with sadness.

"Who is it?" Whispered Harry as all eyes turned to Hermione, whose pulse began increasing rapidly, and breathing began to get deeper and quicker. She held her breathe.

"M-Malfoy"

The eyebrows of those around her rose in surprise as she named the victim. "Who else could it be? They had an argument on his hair and about his father, it makes sense!"

"But why would someone do that to someone else, even him-"

"Because, Harry, it was probably a punishment for not... Completing what he was supposed to do at the Astronomy Tower"

"I don't believe a word of this" said Ron "For all we know he could be faking it-"

"Look at the goddamn puddles of blood leading to the kitchen! Ron, doesn't that explain enough? We can see them from here!" Hermione scowled at him and then continued to speak. "I suggest we listen some more." Everyone apart from Ron, who started sulking in a corner nodded in agreement, before leaning closer to the extendable ear.

"_-further down than that, he would already be dead"_

"_How many stab wounds has he got, Molly"_

"_He's got two on his right thigh, one through his shoulder, one through his stomach and one under his left knee"_

"_Blimey, it's a wonder this kid isn't already dead"_

"_I can't believe this, so you're saying he has numerous cuts on his back from being whipped vigorously, has been under the cruciatus curse for so long he's going to be temporarily blind __**if**__ he ever wakes up, and he has been stabbed several times in various places? God help this poor boy..."_

"_He's going to need his own bloody god if we want this miracle to work"_

"_There's also two puncture marks on his chest"_

"_From what?"_

"_I don't know, some kind of animal, maybe?"_

"_Greyback?"_

"_..."_

"_..."_

"_..."_

"_Don't be ridiculous Remus-"_

"_Look, I am obviously an expert at this sort of thing, and I am telling you, that this is a werewolf bite."_

"_..."_

"_Poor lad"_

"_Shush for a second...Oh my... He's stopped breathing"_

"_Let me see! He can't have..."_

"_Quick! Poppy! Get me the-"_

"_Yes, Yes! I know what you need I am a qualified healer you know!"_

"_Now now women! This is no time for arguments!"_

"_I don't want to be under pressure, this is very risky..."_

"_..."_

"_It hasn't worked... Oh my"_

"_What? What is it woman!"_

"_There's nothing we can do, he's gone"_

"_..."_

"_Remus"_

"_Yes"_

"_Go upstairs and inform the youngsters, please, while I sort him out."_

Fred and George quickly wound up the extendable ears as the old defence against the dark arts professor opened the kitchen door. As he closed it, Hermione saw a glimpse of what looked like Mrs Weasley covering up what looked like a mangled body with a large kitchen cloth, but Hermione closed her eyes and turned away before she saw anything else. _What a way to go_, she thought.

Remus Lupin cleared his throat as he saw the six adolescent people gaze upon him.

"The person who was in need of looking after, you all probably know already. Draco Malfoy" The werewolf paused, expecting there to be gasps, but when none followed, he carried on."Unfortunately we couldn't help him enough." There was another pause as he cleared his throat, "He passed away a few moments ago" Faces finally grew sad, but no one cried, he was Draco Malfoy after all, the chosen one's childhood bully.

Hermione was first to speak "How did he... You know..." She asked, looking down at her feet sheepishly.

"Remus! You'd better come down here! He's got a pulse!" screamed a person most likely to be Tonks, so Remus quickly obeyed the order, but not before saying:

"You should stay in your rooms this time"

The teens then departed towards their rooms before trying, if they could, to get back to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2  Wakeup Call

-Chapter Two-

Wake-up Call

Draco Malfoy woke up and found that the birds were singing. The harmonic sound floated through his ears, which would be pleasing on a normal day for any normal person. Unfortunately, he was not. His surroundings were nice and comfy; everything was perfect, apart from one thing. All he could see was darkness. No matter how many times he blinked or rubbed his eyes. Just darkness. It was as if his phantasmagoria of blindness in the prejudism of muggleborns had caught up with him in reality. He felt his way around the supposed bed and was about to shout if anyone was there until, coincidently, he heard a voice.

"I see you have finally woken up, Mr Malfoy."

It startled him, and he wondered what sort of person was keeping him bed-bound. The voice did not sound threatening, as it shared the same comforting flow that any loving mother would provide, but it wasn't his own mother.

"Who are you?" Draco knew the voice somewhere in the back of his brain, but it hurt him to even think, so he forgave himself for giving up._ Wait, Malfoy's don't forgive... Oh, who was he kidding, he's not exactly a scared shit-less Malfoy anymore, is he? What the hell was he thinking, going against the Dark Lord?_

"I thought you would know straight away, considering you used to spend hours in my hands after you had those silly little paper cuts." Draco's face was full of confusion at the familiarity of the woman's voice, intimidating him as he couldn't see anything, but of course, he would never mention that to anyone.

Wait.

Where the hell was his precious sight?

He started struggling to be free from under the sheets, but they seemed to stay like a stubborn jam jar lid as he began to panic.

"Now, you must calm down Mr Malfoy..."

"let me go you crazy son-of-a-" The bed sheets pulled him down further, enabling him to even twitch his fingers.

"I will not have attitude like that in this room"

Draco tried to escape from the bed, but his wounds hindered him and a charm was casted so he was unable to escape. _That crafty witch bitch was __**prepared**__ for his consciousness?_

"You can't keep me here like a bloody prisoner!"

"I'm afraid you have nowhere else to go _but _prison, young man" His struggling had faltered slightly, as those words rolled around the back of his brain. But that stutter of action was short lived as he heard the familiar creak of a door open and light footsteps tapping towards the source of Madame Pomfrey's voice.

"I've brought you some wolfsbane potion that Lupin-"

"What to bloody hell is she here for?" Draco pointed at where he heard the voice. The same voice occupying the body that had insulted, punched and humiliated him throughout Hogwarts, the same voice that was whispering unknown words to Pomfrey, which infuriated him beyond doubt as no one was telling him anything. "Just fucking tell me what the fuck is going on!" He waited for the answer he demanded to know, but when only silence interfered, he cracked. "Great. I'm being held prisoner by a rubbish excuse of a healer and a filthy mud-"

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Draco froze instantly, automatically allowing the spell to compel him, although he was apparently blind, he felt a being hover over him like a vulture over a carcass, all he could do was wait for the outcome.

"You will hold your tongue, _Malfoy_, because you are at our mercy at the moment" Granger's voice stung inside his head as she spoke, yet again reminding him of the past. "And by _our _mercy_, _I mean the order" His eyes widened in response. "And because you are with _the order, _I will expect you to at least be slightly cooperative" There was a slight pause as Draco heard Granger sigh in frustration. "I am only going to say this once." A gulp was heard. "You were brought here, by Dobby, so bloodied, stabbed and bruised, at first, we thought you were dead, and left to..." Draco could tell that she was trying to avoid the memory that seemed to make her eyes twitch and her shoulders shiver. "Anyway, we found out that you have multiple stab wounds in various places, whip burns on your back and symptoms from being under the cruciatus for a fatal period of time... Hence the 'no sight' business" Draco heard her clear her throat. _Get on with it woman!_ "Also, you... err... Never mind" _What? WHAT? _"We predict that if you take a medical potion daily your sight will be back in about a month".

Draco was infuriated. _A month! _How will he survive not being able to see for a month? He'll need help... And from The Order no less! He tried to yell, scream, shout, anything that would make him wake from this nightmare that was plaguing his sanity.

"Now, if you would just keep calm when I remove the spell"

_Calm? CALM? _He was confined in what he thought was the order's headquarters, stuck with all of his enemies_... Wait... Enemies? What side was he on? Surely not the one that almost tortured him into madness god knows how long ago? These enemies... They had saved his life._ He felt the spell being lifted but remained confused at the thought. _Where was he supposed to go? No one wanted him... But this was good! It meant that no one needed to kill him! But wait... The death eaters certainly proved that they don't favour him much..._

He snapped back into reality when he heard a door close, so he presumed that Granger had to have left, meaning that the only living things that occupied the room now were just him and his thoughts. Unfortunately.

Hermione closed the door, allowing it to click as it shut and exhaled a deep breath that she did not realise she had held. She slumped her head so that she was facing the old floorboards below her and closed her eyes in frustration. _This is going to be difficult._ It had only been 2 minutes. She definitely won't have any hair by the end of the week. Poor, defenceless Malfoy? Yeah, right. The only reason why she decided to help Malfoy recover was because she may have felt a teeny tiny bit of pity, but that was gone now, and hatred had washed over, just like old times. Well, at least she started to feel a bit of normality. Feeling... _Feelings _for Malfoy was starting to give her the creeps.

"'Mione?"

Hermione swiftly looked up and a freckly face with ginger hair greeted her with a soft smile. She smiled back, and all of the anger in her head had suddenly been replaced by happiness, the one emotion that only her friends seemed to fuel these days.

"Hey"

"Do you want to go down stairs? Lunch is ready" Hermione responded with a slight nod, and followed him through the hallway, then down 2 flights of stairs, where she was greeted again by ginger hair, this time, 3 more heads and Harry somewhere in the middle. They reached the kitchen, where pots and pans were pleading for a scrub on an occasional surface, and old tattered and overused cookbooks swarmed over a counter. Mrs Weasley led her to a place at the table, where a sandwich seemed to be awaiting her.

"There we go dear, that's it, eat dear" Hermione had guessed that Mrs Weasley had wanted her to plump up recently, but what for, she did not know. Maybe she looked underweight? No one she asked had thought so. Did she need energy for something coming? The final battle? Nah. Hopefully, that was ages away.

But then a thought entered into her brilliant mind.

She was house bound, not allowed to even step a toe outside unprotected because of spying deatheaters. She had been forced to leave her parents for their own safety so that she could go and find horcruxes. She has had to abandon her whole life at Hogwarts, and start training for battle.

Really, there were only months left to prepare. The present is only a walk in the park, compared to what is to be brought from the future.

She gladly tucked into her sandwich, as it provided her with distractions: A nice meal to chew on, as well as a friendly afternoon banter at the dinner table.

"So, 'Mione, has Malfoy died yet?" said Harry. Hermione shouldn't have been annoyed, because she was expecting this. All occupants of the table looked at her curiously. Of course, with them being four Weasleys and Harry Potter, it was not a surprise when they continuously chatted on about Malfoy's condition in that way. Don't get her wrong, it was funny to listen to, and she often joined in with the jokes, but she couldn't help but feel a flicker of irritation run through her brain. But of course, she had to tell them, they weren't really that bothered to find out for themselves.

"He... Woke up this morning" All eyes were upon her own as she said that, and she noticed that Harry's palm that hugged his knife clenched slightly, there was no question on what he was thinking.

"And?" Ginny's eyebrows were raised, as if she was surprised, or disappointed with Malfoy's growing recovery. The table was suddenly struck with a painful silence. Hermione took a long gulp.

"I really don't want to talk about it"

Ron put down his cutlery. "What did he say?" His voice was normal, but Hermione could tell that he was trying to hide anger and frustration. He was never really good at doing that.

"Oh, the usual. Don't worry, I've heard it all before. Nothing a wand can't sort out"

"What was it this time, the bat bogey hex"

"Nah, just the _Petricus. _If things get too out of hand, though, I just might pop up behind him with one of your inventions"

"I'm flattered. Take a picture for me"

"will do"

"And Fred?"

"Sure"

"The Quibbler?"

"What do you say?"

"Hot and heavy, baby cakes"

"I meant the magic word"

And so the room once again filled with usual banter and laughter, a contrast compared to the bitter silence living in a certain room above them.

**Please review!**

**I don't care if it is just 1 word, it's just that I don't know whether you guys like it or not and I also don't know what to improve on...**

**I'm sorry that I haven't updated in a while, but hey-ho! GCSEs are more important at the moment. After all my exams I should have the whole summer to update, so expect more updates then!**

**I just want to say... Everyone is so nice and really cares about each other's work and stuff; I thought it would be hard to deal with reviews that tell you how to improve, but it's actually quite heart-warming XP**


End file.
